Sarah vs the Pursuit
by smokeater159
Summary: One shot: Chuck has changed more than she ever thought possible - ever since the train platform at Prague, he continued to break her heart every single day. Is he gone forever or is he still the same man that Sarah Walker fell in love with? Takes place in Season 3 shortly after the Nacho Sampler.


**A/N:** This is an idea that I've had in my head for a while, short, but I hope you enjoy!

I do not own Chuck much to my dismay.

* * *

Deep in the recesses of a CIA compound, the sounds of a relentless beating could be heard. Strike after merciless strike rang through the deserted hallways, all the way to the ears of Colonel John Casey, NSA. Working on reports always put him in a bad mood, and he grumpily looked up from his computer screen at the noise. He took a long drag on his cigar as he contemplated the noise before standing up and deciding to investigate. This action alone forced him to roll his eyes; there was a time when this type of thing would have and should have been ignored by him…but he's been getting soft and he knew Bartowski was to blame.

With one last low, angry grunt Casey rounded the corner of the dojo in the base. Agent Sarah Walker was the only one present, insistently wailing on the heavy bag present in the room. Dressed in tight shorts and a sports top, he couldn't help but notice her excellent figure. Not that he would ever find himself involved with Walker – despite the fact that she was too young for him, he considered her more like a sister. She was easily the best partner he had ever had, and he would never let anything come between them…not that he would ever tell her that.

She was clearly distracted this morning. The bag was swinging with a velocity that should not have been possible with the weight of the heavy bag. Walker's knuckles were bleeding profusely and judging by the tracks on her face there were very clearly tears mixing with the sweat. Casey watched for a few more seconds before clearing his throat. Sarah visibly jumped before reeling and pinning him to the wall with a knife to his throat.

 _Must be worse than I thought,_ Casey mused to himself. If he was able to get into the room without alerting her when he _wasn't_ trying to be stealthy, she was in a bad way.

"What the _hell_ are you doing sneaking up on me Casey?" Sarah asked angrily, not lowering the knife.

"Easy Walker," Casey breathed, putting his hands up in a calming posture. "I was just checking on you. Wanna tell me what's eating at you so bad?"

"Nothing." She snapped, lowering the knife and pushing him roughly one last time before turning and snatching up her water bottle.

"You don't have to tell me. In fact, I'd prefer it if you didn't. But you need to figure whatever it is out before you break your hand or worse. I'll be finishing my report in the conference room. You decide you wanna be a big girl again, come find me." Casey said before turning to leave. He may have become soft and started to care about her, but that didn't mean he had to _act_ soft.

As Sarah watched Casey's retreating back, she took a deep breath and fell against the wall, slowly sinking to the floor. She drank angrily from her water bottle before throwing it across the room. She knew exactly what the problem was but Casey wouldn't understand; hell, he was part of the problem. First Chuck tears out her heart on that train platform in Prague and then she was forced to sit by and watch Beckman, Shaw and even Casey chip away at the man she knew and once loved. Their latest mission in Dubai showed her just how far gone he was. _Her_ Chuck would never have been able to nurture and then burn an asset. And in the space of just a few days he did exactly that _and_ betrayed the man by first giving him hope and then quickly destroying it as he tranqued him in the back. This mission was one of the latest in a long string of evidence that showed her the man she once loved was gone.

She badly wanted to blame Beckman or Casey or Shaw but she knew the only person to blame was herself, and that is part of what made her so angry. She knew that Chuck was only trying to become a spy so he could be with her, and she hated herself for it. This is not the life that she wanted for him – for _them_. She was ready to walk away from the CIA after his sister's wedding, and she was on the verge of telling him exactly that when the Intersect once again ruined their chances.

Sarah's thoughts were interrupted as her phone chirped; checking the display, she found that Chuck was on the move from the Buy More. Looking at the time she decided nothing was amiss as it was time for him to get off work, however something wasn't sitting right. Unlocking her phone, she looked at the tracker and everything seemed to be in order. Normal time, normal vehicle, normal pace even – for LA freeways anyway. Then it dawned on her – Chuck was heading north, not south towards his apartment in Echo Park. Immediately suspicious, Sarah walked to the conference room, cleaning her hands with her towel as she went.

"Did Chuck tell you if he was going anywhere after work?" She tried to ask nonchalantly.

"I'm not his babysitter, Walker. He didn't say anything to me."

"Thanks," She said sarcastically before stalking off.

"Lock this shit down, Walker!" Casey called grumpily after her.

She chose to ignore him and kept heading to the locker room to change. This was the third time in the last two weeks that he headed north of town without telling anyone. She was instantly expecting the worst; everything that happened lately seemed to indicate that this was the most likely scenario. With exaggerated visions of secret assassination missions – or worse, secret rendezvouses with _Jill_ or some other stupid brunette – Sarah jogged up the stairs to her Porsche. In no time at all she was swerving between cars, dangerously fast, until she finally showed that she was within 200 yards of Chuck's car. Slowing down, she continued at a more sedate pace (88 instead of 100 mph) and progressed until she got a visual on his car.

Staying about forty yards back and two lanes over from Chuck, she assessed the situation. The Nerd Herder was easy enough to pick out of the traffic, and his familiar mop of brown hair was even more recognizable to her. He was alone, gently bobbing his head to some music. Though everything else was normal, she could tell he was nervous. He was tapping his thumbs on the top of the steering wheel but it was out of sync with his head bobbing. Add to that the fact that he ran his hand through his hair about five times in the thirty seconds she had eyes on him, something was definitely wrong. Giving in to her curiosity, she pulled out her phone again and dialed his number. She watched as he took his time looking at the display, almost letting it go to voicemail before he finally answered it.

"Hello?" He said. Sarah was concerned at how tired he sounded.

"Hey Chuck, it's me. Are you ok? You sound exhausted."

"I'm fine. Don't worry about me." He answered rather shortly. She decided not to push the issue.

"So I was wondering, are you busy tonight? Ellie called and was wanting to know if we could have a game night later."

Sarah's lie was immediately matched with a lie from Chuck.

"I got held over at the Buy More, I'll probably be here for a few more hours. Raincheck?" He asked a little more normally. Sarah decided enough was enough.

"Chuck, you know my phone is constantly updated with your location. Why are you lying to me?" Much as she despised herself for it, some unfeigned hurt was clearly evident in her voice.

"Probably a similar reason as to why you are lying to me, Sarah. Ellie has to work tonight, so want to try again?"

Sarah cursed herself for being caught in the lie. She hadn't spoken to Ellie in two days, she should have guessed her schedule would change, just so the universe could spite her.

"Chuck, we need to be straight with each other. What's going on?" She asked, her patience wearing thin.

"Why don't we start with why you're tailing me, Agent Walker." There was no small amount of defiance in his voice as she looked at his car again and she could see his eyes in the rear-view mirror that was angled towards her. Even from such a distance there was no mistaking that they were looking directly at her, making her feel comfortably exposed to him like they always did.

"How did you know?" She asked.

"I'm not inept, Sarah, much as everyone seems to think so. I picked up on counter-surveillance long before the 2.0, thanks to you and Casey."

She rolled her eyes at her own stupidity. "I'm worried about you, Chuck. I know this is the third time you've gone up this way and you haven't been yourself lately. You've changed, and you're hiding something and I'm not going to sit by and deal with it."

There was a long pause before he answered. "I know this is a hard concept for a super-spy, but if you had just asked I would have told you, Sarah. Follow me and I'll show you."

Without allowing her to answer, Chuck killed the line. Sarah's curiosity was peaked, so she followed him while stewing in her anger and hurt. They drove for about 45 miles, consistent with her readings from the GPS tracker on his previous excursions. It was definitely the same location, but her research on the area only revealed a large parking lot with a non-descript office building. Consistent with the preferences of both the CIA and the Ring, there was no information on it in the CIA databases. Despite the suspicious nature of the situation, Sarah still trusted Chuck enough to follow him in.

Parking next to him, she got out to find Chuck resting against the hood of his car. He looked at her for a moment and regarded her with sad, hollow eyes before twirling his keys and putting them in his pocket. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a CIA identification badge and clipping it to his pocket protector. More confused than ever, Sarah followed him, pulling her own badge from her purse.

They walked inside and through a metal detector. Sarah put her gun in the drop box as she stepped through and after checking her credentials it was handed back to her. The whole time she watched Chuck suspiciously as he chatted with the obviously familiar guards. After they finished with her, they walked off in silence, and Sarah's multiple requests for information were promptly ignored. After taking an elevator down several levels, Chuck stopped outside of a door.

"You may _think_ that I am nothing like I was, but I haven't changed Sarah. You can sit in here." He said cryptically as he opened the door for her and showed her inside. The room was small, just a short table with a coffee maker and a few chairs in front of a large window looking into the next room. Judging by the tint of the window and the intercom, Sarah guessed it was a two-way mirror.

Very shortly, Chuck entered the next room, pulling a cart behind him. After shaking hands with the guard, the door was locked, and Chuck began setting up a Wii and an Xbox console to the large TV in the corner. He moved the chairs in front of the TV and pushed the table against the wall before sitting in one of the chairs and starting everything up.

Sarah, more confused than ever, got herself a cup of coffee out of habit more than anything else. She sat in the chair and watched him, noting the sag in his shoulders and just how down he seemed, even from behind. Soon, the door opened again with a clang, and in walked a shackled but smiling Manoosh.

Sarah's jaw dropped as she watched Chuck immediately stand up and smile, embracing Manoosh like a brother. They chatted amicably for a few moments before sitting down while the guard removed the shackles. Chuck handed him a controller once he was free and they began playing an online game. Sarah watched them for a long time, completely mystified. Whatever she was expecting to find here, this was the furthest thing from it. She had been so terrified that she was losing him, that she had already lost him, and instead of making sure that didn't happen she became cold and distant and pushed him away. She did the same thing she always did to protect herself from her emotions, both the pain caused by Chuck leaving her in Prague and the fact that he was changing his entire personality for her. Despite her greatest fears and everything Chuck was doing lately, this clearly proved that he was still the same guy, still _her_ Chuck and the same good man that he had always been. She instantly felt shame at her doubt and at her distrust of him and was horrified at the terrible mistake she had almost made.

She had no idea how long she stood there watching them. They played a multitude of different games and ate some pizza that the guard brought in. Hours must have passed before Chuck finally stood up, placing the gaming consoles back on the cart. He handed Manoosh a paper bag which he opened to reveal a stock of new comic books. They shook hands again before the guards came back in and escorted him back out. Chuck watched him go before pushing the cart out into the hallway and disappearing from view. Sarah continued to stare into the room, reflecting on everything she had seen. Eventually the door opened and she barely registered Chuck's voice as he asked if she was coming. Evidently she took too long to answer because when she finally turned her head the door was swinging closed.

The snapping of the door jarred her from her thoughts and she immediately knew she had been a fool. She instantly decided that it was time to rectify her mistake. She threw open the door and sprinted out into the hallway, quickly navigating back to the main entrance. She saw Chuck's back retreating out the door and she hurried through the metal detectors and out the door before finally catching up to him.

Without saying a word, she reached her hand out and interlaced her fingers with his. He jumped slightly, startled, before looking down at their hands. He looked up at her and she smiled, pressing slightly into him. He looked back up with a goofy smile on his face and walked to the car in silence. They reached their cars and Chuck opened the door to her Porsche. She stood next to the open door and looked into his eyes, lightly placing her hands on his forearms. She leaned in and kissed him lightly on the lips, drawing him in as the kiss deepened. It ended fairly quickly for her taste, but he smiled and followed it with a kiss to her forehead.

"Follow me to the Buy More, I'm going to drop my car off. Then I'm taking you to dinner."

Without any further discussion on the matter he got into his car and drove off. Sarah smiled as she followed him out of the parking lot, driving back to the highway and heading home as the sun began to set.


End file.
